Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Look what we made!

I did something a little bit cruel... Last week, when Elliott was asleep, I brought out all of his toys and put them in separate bins divided by category. After I finished, I placed each bin on the top shelf of Elliott's closet where he couldn't reach them. Now, he must ask me to get each thing he wants to play with. I've never heard of this approach before and it seems a little mean, but I just couldn't keep up with all the chaos. It has actually been very helpful for me and instructive for Elliott, because he is learning that he must pick up after himself before moving on to the next thing. It also gives me more time to focus on playing with him since I'm not needing to be perpetually cleaning up after him. He enjoys things more when there is some sort of order and I finally have a tiny bit of control over my house again!